Cost of Data Breach Study by Ponemon (2017 vs last year)

Let's take a snapshot of a 2017 security breach study before Equifax breach

• Average cost of data breach decreased from $4MM to 3.62MM
•  Average cost for each lost or stolen record containing sensitive and confidential information also significantly decreased from $158 to $141
• Decrease in cost is directly proportional to the significantly strong U.S. dollar (and currency rate fluctuation)
• Average size of data breaches increased by 1.8% and trend this year is “larger breaches”
• Global average of breached records is 24,089 with U.S. third at 28,521 (highest is ID at 33,167 and lowest is AU 18,556)
• All participating companies experienced a data breach from 2,600 to 100,000 compromised records
• Per capita cost by industry classification with Healthcare at top $380 ($369 four year average) then Financial $245 ($222 four year average) then Education $200 ($260 four year average)
• Root cause of data breach: 47% Malicious or criminal attack ($155.6 per capital), 28% Human Error ($125.8 per capital) and 25% System glitch ($128.1 per capital)
• Day to identify and contain data breach incidents by root cause [MTTI vs MTTC in days]: Malicious or criminal attack 214 to 77 days, Human Error 168 to 54 days and System glitch 170 to 58 days

Global study source:

•  419 companies in 13 country or regional samples
• $3.62 million is the average total cost of data breach
• 10% one-year decrease in average total cost
• $141 is the average cost per lost or stolen records
• 11.4% one-year decrease in the per capita cost
• 27.7% is the likelihood of a recurring material data breach over the next two years
•  2.1% increase in the likelihood of a recurring material data breach
• 11 countries and 2 regional samples: US, UK, Germany Australia, France, Brazil, Japan, Italy, India, Canada, South Africa, Middle East, ASEAN region (Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia)